The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-09-10

AdJHSl CuIiouS puZZi6, why any pIeleDS6
o. fort to save sinner should be made
by One who must know beforehand that
it will be unsuccessful. There is in DIR.
Abbott's scheme of religion a great
realm of things unknown and unknow-
able, embracing not only acts of free
beings but the issues of such acts. We
would fain believe that in the actual
system, ordered by the Divine wisdom,
this vast tract is surveyed, mapped and
tOlerably well known.
1t is clear perception of truth which
should never have been obscure, to see,
as Mr.. Abbott does, that no arbitrary
line can be fixed at death. Heremarks
that there is just as much Scripture
and more reason, for fixing the limit of
opportunity to be saved at the age OF
forty for every individual as to fix it at
death. Death, he justly observes, has
nothing whatever to do with probation.
But the lend of the world" is the limit,
wherever that is" Mr.. Abbott gives
us reason for thinking that in his view
the end of the world and the day of
judgment is not general event, far in
the future, but crisis that occurs in
the history of each person. The Ian
guage already quoted from him implies
that every individual is on trial to see
whether OF not he can be influenced to
turn from darkness to light; and that
when he is seen to be incorrigible he is
given over and for him ''the end
cometh." By putting a very literal
construction on certain passages of
Scripture something like this may be
made out; but the common Orthodox
view of general judgment, which DR..
Abbott rejects, is more readily made
out by treating the passages literally
There should be some special reason
for the Interpretation he adopts. What
is that reason? We venture to say
there is no reason whatever, apart from
a certain theological theory which he
has espoused. This theory is the crook
in DR.. Abbott's scheme.
The notion that God is in Christ
working out the cure of the n-sick
race, but that some of them-how
many no man can tell-are all the while
reaching condition in which they are
past cure, and where God gives them
up, is an inheritance from that mass of
ingenious but crude speculatioDs, be-
gun by the Apostolic Fathers, made
more complex and incoherent by the
Church Fathers, successfully worked
over and daubed with untempered NOR
tar by the great theologians and the
Church councils, patched and plastered
into various confessions after the up
heayal OF the Protestant Reformation,
and which it is the inveterate delusion
of great numbers of excellent Christian
people to believe, must be held together
in order to preserve the precious edifce
of our holy religion. DR.. Abbott, whose
mind is naturally original and con
structige, wastes great amount of
energy and misapplies no small learn
ing, in the effort not to break with
this accumulation of sanctifed vanities.
But why prOlOng the agony, dear DR..
Abbott? All that rubbish is destined
to be cleared away. You have made
hopeful assaults on parts of it, and few
men are better equipped to continue the
good work. Alas! that you should put
your strong shoulder under one of the
weakest places in the old ruin and
shout to the aroused friends of Chris
tian progress to come and help you sup
port the arch of Divine Truth.
If one hypothesis of a self contradict
Ory system is more unreasonable and
anti Christian than another, it is this
on which DR.. Abbott prides himself
a modification of Joseph Cooks great
doctrine of fixed permanence. 1t re-
quires but single Gospel thought to
dissipate it into the thin air of which
it is really composed. The Son of Man
came to seek and to save the lost. 1t
is certain that there were then and that
there had been i'll every previous age,
multitudes of men as deeply environ
ed in sensuality, covetousness, ambi-
ton, selhshness," as any have since
been, are now, or are ever likely to be.
These were, according to Lyman Alb
bOtt, beyond all hope in this life or the
next" God had given them over. It
follows that Jesus did not come to seek
and to save them. The logic of this
position runs straight TO Calvinism.
God is not in Christ working out the
cure of the race. lie is merely engaged
in curing such as are not very sick; in
saving a remnant. Is this the Gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ? Does Ly-
man Abbott helieve it in any sane mo
ment? We think better of him.
1. VI. A.
On the occasion of the burial OF the
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